


Saiyan Traditions

by ForFangirls



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Gen, How'd you tell, Refugee Vegeta, Saiyan Culture, Saiyans, Yes I am an anthropology major
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 09:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForFangirls/pseuds/ForFangirls
Summary: Recently-arrived refugees learn something new every minute: how to change a light bulb, where to catch the bus on their way to work, how to keep up with their children's obsession with Disney. Luckily, refugees in the United States usually have the option to settle down near others from similar cultures and traditions. However, what happens when you have a refugee from an alien planet?





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Bizarre Earth Customs](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/383075) by Nintendocat. 



> This story was inspired by Bizarre Earth Customs by Nintendocat (which you can read on Fanfiction.net) where Bulma discovers how odd Earth traditions seem to Vegeta. So being the Anthropology major that I am, I wanted to take it one step further to write a story where Vegeta discovers how odd Saiyan traditions seem to Bulma and, really, everyone else on Earth. Enjoy!

It was December on the Capsule Corp. Campus and everyone was preparing for Ganjitsu, the Japanese New Year’s Festival. Bulma was busy cleaning the house with her mother and father, per their annual tradition of cleaning it themselves on New Year’s Eve.

Although Bulma loved the traditions she was worried about having enough time to get ready before the countdown party tonight. She also had to warn Vegeta about the fireworks, which despite not being a Japanese tradition was one of her favorite Capsule Corp. and family traditions.

Can’t have Mr. Prince of All Saiyans thinking we’re under attack… though Bulma wondered if Vegeta would even defend the place or just leave without a second thought.

“Woman, what are you doing?”

“Speak of the devil…”

“What?”

“Nothing my Prince, what can I do for you?” Bulma said with false sincerity. 

“That’s better” Vegeta said suspiciously, “Are you finally cleaning this mansion to my standards?”

Bulma frowned and put down her duster, “No, this is a just a New Year’s tradition.”

“New Year’s?”

“Yes, we celebrate the New Year on the calendar every year. Something about rebirth.”

“Ah, we had something like that on Vegeta.”

“Really?”

“Yes, we celebrate the birth of our planet. Though since I doubt you human’s have a date for that you just chose an arbitrary date to signal a new solar cycle like idiots.”

“Yes I suppose we did.”

Vegeta paused, his arms stayed crossed but he tilted his head down and frowned even more so than usual, “What? No argument?”

“We did just pick a date. I’m sure it was based on something but not the birthdate of the planet, I don’t think we even know when the planet was formed yet.”

“Humph” Vegeta… somewhat said.

“Anyway, we’re having a party tonight to countdown until it’s technically the new year then a little fireworks show.”

Vegeta finally looked up, “A firearms show?”

“No not firearms, ‘fireworks’. They’re a type of pyrotechnic designed to explode into different colors and shapes that we set off in the sky.” Bulma patiently explained.

“Your people set of explosions for fun?”

Bulma gave a coy smile, “Yes we do my Prince. Want to watch on the roof with me tonight?”

Vegeta looked down the hall and said, “No.”

Bulma frowned but after all she’d been expecting that answer. “Okay, well I’ll see you tomorrow for the big breakfast.” and she started to walk down the hall for some more cleaning wipes.

Vegeta’s voice rang behind her, “You have a feast on the first day of the new year?”

“Yeah, why?” Bulma stopped and turned around. 

Vegeta was staring at the ground over his forever-crossed arms, “We used to do that on Vegeta.”

Bulma considered that for a moment then said, “Why don’t you go tell my mom what you used to eat at the feast on Vegeta and we’ll see what we can do.”

“Please woman, none of your planet’s food is similar to that we had on Vegeta.” The Saiyan said in a huff, “though… I suppose we could have that sir-lion your mother made weeks ago. We also ate a lot of meat on Vegeta.”

“I’ll go tell mom, and it’s called ‘sirloin’ by the way.” Bulma said, impressed Vegeta noticed anything about her mother’s cooking considering how fast he always gulped it down. Despite it not being a breakfast food, Bunny assured her they could have it tomorrow if that’s what Vegeta wanted. Bunny really tried so hard to make sure their house guest was happy.

After cleaning the rest of her family’s shared living spaces (because cleaning the entire mansion was way too much work for the three billionaires), Bulma went upstairs to get dressed for the party. She eventually landed on a modern red dress with yellow jewels and matching custom-made earrings. The dress fit comfortably and had sheer sleeves which ran down to just above her wrists. The dress stopped just below her knees, which was longer than almost any of the other dresses she owned but since this was a work party and she wanted to go dancing she figured a longer dress would be appropriate.

Bulma was not normally one to consider other people’s opinions of what she was wearing, but since her father was going to officially announce him giving her control of the company at the party tonight so she wanted to look professional and not cause any reason for uproar. At least, she thought to herself with a sly grin, not quite yet. After pulling on a pair of red heels, putting on perfectly matching lipstick, and curling her baby blue hair Bulma was ready for the party.

An hour later Bulma realized she was anything but ready for this party because, so everyone’s surprise, Vegeta had shown up..


	2. Part 2

After arriving at the New Year’s party Bulma had scanned her eyes over the crowd and quickly realized something was wrong. Everyone was taking quick glances at someone else, not bothering to be subtle about it. Bulma followed the trail of a hundred eyes and found no other than the Prince of all two Saiyans himself.

Bulma froze. Bulma never freezes, but here she was on one of the most important nights of her career and she froze at the sight of Vegeta standing in the ballroom with a pink collared shirt and- are those sweatpants?

Bulma hurried her assistant over and said, “Go to the man in the pink shirt and grey… pants and ask him to please meet me outside.” Her assistant nodded and turned to leave before Bulma grabbed her arm and added, “Approach him slowly and keep your hands in front of you, he can get a little jumpy sometimes.”

Five minutes later Vegeta and Bulma were standing outside the party on one of the many Capsule Corp. campus courtyards. Bulma gestured for Vegeta to follow her and they started walking towards their home without another word. When they arrived, Vegeta finally spoke up.

“Why was I not welcome at your party?”

“What?”

“Believe it or not I did get some training on Vegeta as a social elite not just a warrior, I know when I’m not welcome at a party. I also realized that I wasn’t dressed appropriately, but I don’t own any of what appears to be Earth formal clothing.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Bulma felt guilty for wanted to walk Vegeta home in silence then yell at him for trying to mess with her party. Now she realized Vegeta didn’t mean to ruin anything at all.

“It’s of no consequence, woman.”

“No, really, I’m sorry. When we get inside I’ll find you something to wear and you can come back to the party.” at seeing Vegeta’s eyes snap up violently she added, “if you want to, that is.”

Vegeta’s face relaxed just below its’ tense baseline and Bulma wondered what she did to deserve it. When Vegeta was calm like this he really did look like the cutie she saw months ago after using the Dragon Balls to bring back the Namekians.

After half an hour, Bulma managed to find clothes suitable to the Prince’s high standards of mobility, comfort, and being tight enough to “leave (his) strength somewhat visible” as Vegeta put it. Bulma didn’t understand his requests at the time, but years later she would look back at his odd requirements realizing Vegeta always dressed to be ready for a fight and to intimidate an enemy.

They walked back to the party in silence until Bulma stopped to rub her ankles. Although the three-inch pumps were fashionable they certainly didn’t fit any of Vegeta’s clothing rules.

Unbeknownst to the young genius, Vegeta sensed her stop and knew she had to get back to the party. Not wanting to hear her complain anymore, Vegeta took two quick steps back and scooped her arm in his arms before pushing off into the air.

Bulma screamed and held onto his shoulders for dear life. She didn’t stop screaming until Vegeta said “Calm down woman, I need you to fix the gravity chamber and build me a spaceship. I won’t kill you.” with a smile that she didn’t miss for once.

“Why couldn’t we just walk back to the party, huh?”

“Because those torture devices your people call footwear is clearly injuring your ankles and you said tonight was important for some reason. No need to walk when I can fly back.”

“Oh” Bulma said, listening to the wind in her hair for a minute. “Um, can you soften your arms a little? I think I’d feel safer if-” Suddenly Vegeta dove down and Bulma gripped his shoulder with a strength that secretly impressed both of them. When he landed he unceremoniously stood Bulma upright and walked past her back to the party.

“What’s the big deal tonight anyway? Surely this hairbrained holiday can’t be worth all the fuss.”

Bulma smiled despite herself, “No that’s not all, my father is announcing I’ll be taking over as CEO of Capsule Corp. in a few months.”

Vegeta widened his eyes, “Your father is dying?”

Now it was Bulma’s turn to widen her eyes, “No no! Nothing like that, he’s just ready to retire and relax and I’m ready to run the company.”

“Ah, a logical decision. I assume that’s why you decided to dress appropriately for once?” Bulma blushed as Vegeta continued, “Even by your planet’s indecent ideals of fashion you still seem to dress in a vulgar way.”

“Been noticing the way I dress, my Prince?”

She half expected Vegeta to blush, but instead the mighty warrior just uncrossed his arms and turned towards her. “No, I’ve just been trying to learn how you insane little creatures dress.” Bulma nodded to Vegeta and scolded herself for thinking the Prince had eyes for anyone but himself. 

“Well, yes you’re right. I did dress more professionally tonight. What do you think?” Bulma smiled as she finally got the Prince to look her up and down.

Vegeta hummed gruffly and said, “This might be the closest to Saiyan fashion I’ve seen thus far. With the exception of the Kame training Gi’s of course.” which Bulma decided to take as a compliment.

“Let’s get inside so I don’t miss the announcement and you don’t miss the food.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a lot of research into this chapter so I could better reflect and represent modern Japanese New Year's celebrations. One of the traditions (in addition to cleaning the house on December 31st) is to have a big family breakfast on New Years Day then go to the Black-Friday-level sales which go on all day January 1st. This is my take on how Vegeta would respond to these traditions, so please enjoy the chapter and learning a little bit about modern Japanese culture.

After the succession announcement and the ringing of the bells, the Brief family and their alien guest all went to sleep. The next morning Bunny and Vegeta were both up early to help the chef’s cook and go train respectively. Two hours later there was a knock on the gravity chamber door.

Bulma stood patiently outside while she listened to the sounds of her machine shutting down accompanied by loud, frustrated footsteps. When the door opened to reveal Vegeta sweating in black spandex shorts and a tank top with his arms crossed and head tilted down, Bulma just smiled and looked at him.

“Like what you see?” Vegeta said peevishly.

“What if I did?” Bulma joked back.

Vegeta tilted his head then grunted again. “What do you want Woman? You’re interrupting my-”

“Yes your important obsessive training, I know. I just came to tell you that the ‘feast’ is about to be served.” Bulma said. Vegeta just looked at her as he mentally debated stopping his training to eat, though certainly he’s hungry so what is he really trying to figure out? Bulma wondered to herself.

Bulma just stared back then said “And mom had the chef prepare a sirloin just for you, cooked to your preferences my liege.” Bulma mock-curtsied. Vegeta scowled at her but she just laughed, turned, and walked down the ramp. “Adieu, my Prince” she yelled back as she went back to her house. She was sure Vegeta heard her because the next sound she heard was the slamming of the gravity chamber door.

Ten minutes later, Vegeta walked downstairs in jeans and a green collared shirt. Everyone was surprised not because he had come to breakfast but because they hadn’t seen him use the door. Bunny smiled politely and said “Good morning” as did Dr. Brief between bites of sausage and white rice.

Vegeta sat down without a word and grabbed the platter with what he recognized as sirloin. Bulma stopped eating to watch as Vegeta cut himself an incredibly large serving of the beef then tried some. He closed his eyes for a second and Bulma wondered where his mind had taken him, though she quickly realized it has reminded him enough of his home to send him back to what she hoped were happier times.

Vegeta opened his eyes and looked directly at Bulma. She looked away then heard him say, “This is acceptable.” Despite the comment being somewhat rude and unappreciative for any human, Bunny started beaming and Bulma smiled.

“Would it hurt you to say ‘thank you’?” Bulma teased.

“I don’t know but I don’t plan on finding out.” Vegeta said between large gulps of prime sirloin.


End file.
